THE RECENT CATTLE DISEASE IN KANSAS. 
341 
3d. Ascertain the difference of its action as grown in the 
various graminese subject to its attacks. 
4th. In cases where the ergot is largely present and physiologi¬ 
cally active, ascertain if any inimical qualities attach to the stems 
(hay, straw) apart from the diseased seeds and ergot. 
5th. Ascertain the effect of soils on its growth and activity: 
a. Damp and dry. 
b. Porous and impervious. 
c. With open and impervious subsoil. 
d. Deep and shallow. 
e. Rich in organic matter, and deficient. 
f. Rich in nitrogen, and deficient. 
g. Rich in the mineral constituents of the grasses, and deficient. 
h. If long in cultivation; heavily manured and the opposite. 
i. If newly broken; after timber and after prairie. 
6th^ Ascertain how the activity is affected by the different 
modes of curing the fodder. 
7th. Make similar experimental investigations in the case of 
each of the other fungi that attack cultivated fodders. 
8th. In the case of the lower species of fungi, the effect of 
the interstitial, and intravenous injection of the micrococci should 
be determined. 
These inquiries are not suggested that they may be at once 
undertaken by the National Government, which has much more 
important and more urgent duties in the stamping out of exotic 
and other animal plagues which are not limited, like ergotism, to 
particular districts, but threaten the whole nation indiscriminately. 
They may, however, be taken up by others; or at some future 
time, when tfie true plagues have been effectually dealt with, the 
general interests of agriculture and sanitation may be consulted 
by some such investigation into the pathogenic bearings of the 
parasitic fungi of grains and fodders. 
